Derry Youth & Community Workshop (DYCW) is a recognised training organisation, who have been involved in promoting and delivering a wide range of training programmes and opportunities aimed at assisting first-time entrants to the labour market; those wishing to return to employment and, in more recent years, making connections with those furthest away from the labour market by providing an appropriate range of group and individual assistance to address personal barriers to employment.

In the past we have offered young people, mainly school leavers, training, education and personal effectiveness programmes and opportunities through the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP), the Youth Training Programme (YTP) and the Jobskills programme.  Today, we continue to offer our services and programmes to young entrants through the main DEL initiatives of Training for Success and ApprenticeshipsNI, and to the adult population through New Deal (various options) and Core Gateway (18-24 & 25+ options).  We have also provided our services through the Job Assist Centre (JAC) pilot and now the Local Employment Intermediary Service (LEMIS) programme.

For the past year we have been using The Censeo Assessment System, as part of our initial assessment process, to assess our young people on the Training for Success and ApprenticeshipsNI programmes.  Many of our young people present with multiple barriers to learning and may not have attended school regularly, if at all, in the past 2-3 years.  It is therefore imperative that as much information as possible is made available to ensure that their needs are fully met.

As with all work-based learning programmes, the ascertaining of the learner’s starting point is key.  We assess learners in a number of key areas; Essential Skills (literacy, numeracy and ICT), Learning Styles, Vocational Aptitude and any barriers to learning.  At DYCW we found that the information gleaned from The Censeo Assessment System complimented and supported our existing processes and helped to provide a more holistic, fully rounded picture of the individual.  This information was key in selecting and tailoring a ‘best match’ work placement for the individual which would switch the learner on and deliver the best possible outcomes for all involved ie employment for the learner and success rates both in qualifications achieved and progression for the organisation.  Rather than simply selecting the work placement based on the learner’s preference of occupational area, as was previously the case, we are now able to make this selection based on the fullness of information available to us as a result of the assessment outcomes eg how will the individual cope with being given instruction, are they best suited to front of house or back office, are they a caring individual, a morning person or evening person etc.

Historically, we have had many issues with young people sustaining work placement, but we have found that since we introduced this process we have been able to improve this situation, with fewer young people requiring numerous placements.  The number of individuals finding employment has also increased, which we feel has been as a result of the ‘best match’ placement.  For our Apprenticeship learners, the goal is slightly different as they are employed already.  The information given during feedback was well received as it provided information on their potential for progression within their career and how well suited they were to certain tasks.  We have found that all individuals received the information about themselves really well and actually enjoyed learning more about their likes and dislikes.

In the future we plan to continue with this process and hope that as we become more skilled in the interpreting of the information made available that our successes will continue to increase.  We are currently in the tendering process for the Steps to Work programme aimed at those individuals currently out of work, both long term and short term.  If successful, we feel that this assessment tool would have value in assisting those out of work by signposting them to the most suitable occupational area and as a result moving them closer to the labour market and sustained employment.